British Govt. Exempts Egypt from Tripartite Declaration Terms

The British Government feels that the terms of the Tri-partie Declaration of May 1950 do not apply to Egypt, Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd told Commons today on the second day of a full scale debate on the Middle East.

Mr. Lloyd did insist, however, regardless of the abrogation of the Anglo-Jordan treaty Britain still felt that the Tripartite Declaration was in effect. He summed up the purposes of the Declaration as: prevention of an arms race between Israel and the Arab states, and prevention of the violation of frontiers or armistice demarcation lines in the Middle East.

Emanuel Shinwell, a member of the late Labor Cabinet, struck out sharply at President Eisenhower’s statement yesterday on Israel’s right to send a test vessel through the Suez Canal. “Eisenhower says and does some very foolish things,” Mr. Shinwell stated, and one of the most foolish, surely, is the statement that “Israel is entitled to put a ship through Suez but on no account to use force.”

Is anything so? The Laborite asked. “Israel is to send a ship through. Egypt will obviously try to prevent it and will use force. Israel mustn’t use force but take the ship back. Retreat, retreat, retreat–all along the line. That’s not a policy that gets anywhere.”